How Morgan Dollars Became Indian Rupees

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Little thought is given by many on the previous incarnations of the metal that the coins they have once were. Yet, truth be told, the metallic content of many coins cannot be traced to their origins if their sources were previously melted coins – with some exceptions. One such exception entails the silver rupee coins from India, where many of the silver issues of George V after 1917 can trace their silver content back to the United States Morgan Dollar.

Full article: https://www.pcgs.com/news/how-morgan-dollars-became-indian-rupees

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Swampboy

Very interesting article. I was just about to post this link lol.

EBSnumismatics

Wow. Incredible example!

WillieBoyd2

Interesting article!

Here's another one:

British India Rupee 1919
Silver, 30 mm, 11.61 gm

STLNATS

Great article indeed!

As primarily a currency collector (who also chases morgans from time to time) I'm familiar with the Pittman Act and the big morgan $ melt to help the Brits in WWI, dramatically reducing the outstanding amount of US silver certs and spawning the fascinating but short lived 1918 FRBN issues. What I hadn't thought about much was what was specifically done with all that silver. My naive question is - is more info/documentation to id which specific issues of rupees etc were most likely made of this silver. That is, was it used for just the 1919 Calcutta issues or was the Bombay mint and/or the 1920 issues also involved, etc?

Sorry if this is just self evident to you folks that are more "dark side" than I but I like to see/understand for myself how the pieces fit together. And, better yet, It seems to me that my collection needs an appropriate rupee or three to complete the triangle (morgans, rupees and FRBNs). Also any suggestions of more reading/references for me about this would be appreciated.

Thanks! What fun...